'Hollywood treatment': Lewis said he thought the show would be a 'real, raw' experience... but in the end the producers were just 'chasing the ratings'

Explorers: Shelton is a 'survival instructor' from Walker, Minnesota while Lewis is an electrician and extreme sports enthusiast from New Haven, Connecticut

Reached on the phone at his home in New Haven, Connecticut, Mr Lewis, said that on the whole he had a positive experience on Naked and Afraid.

He told MailOnline that he learned a lot about himself and that Miss Shelton had taught him some tricks about making a fire.

He was however frustrated that Naked and Afraid made him look ‘pathetic’ towards the end because viewers did not know that he had hurt his foot.

He said: ‘When I agreed to do the show I said to the producers that if you’re going to do a real, raw show I will do it.

‘They said they wanted to show the reality and how difficult it was, but they went for the ratings.

‘They gave it the Hollywood treatment’.

Naked and Afraid is far from the only ‘reality’ show to take certain liberties with the truth.

TLC came under fire over its series ‘Breaking Amish’ about members of the strict religion who visit New York for the first time.

It later emerged that Kate, an Amish bishop’s daughter, had previously submitted images to modeling agencies which is at odds with the Amish stance against photographs, believing they represent 'vanity' which they deem a sin.

Two other cast members were portrayed as having met for the first time but in fact they had a child together.

MailOnline asked Discovery and Renegade 83, the Los Angeles based production company which made Naked and Afraid for comment.

In an interview with Salon.com, executive producer Denise Contis has denied they were taking advantage of the contestants.

She said: ‘We didn’t develop the show to be exploitative, ever.

‘We always developed it with our filter being ‘how do we protect and it make it a pure survival experience?’’